Bastek

While I was picking up quince tea for JustJames, I picked up this and more of the lemon one for ice tea this summer. Of the brands commonly available at the European Deli I prefer the big active and bastek bases the best.

This tea smells like insence spice, a hint of smoke, warm bake red grapefruit and citrus rind.

While the lemon one is a little grassy and floral tasting, this one does have a tang from the grapefruit rind. The taste of grapefruit is mild but what is there is round and juicy, like ruby red grapefruit juice. It would probably pop with sugar. The base is smooth and dense, with a touch of smoke, a hint of spinach, clover, and a naturally fruity flavour heading toward melon. The aftertaste is tingling fruit rind. It the overall effect is pleasant. I think I prefer the lemon but this is still quite a nice affordable Polish Tea.

I really wish I had bought another box of this when I first found it because I find it to be a really nice, warm and comforting tea on chilly nights.

It has the same gunpowder base of the other Bastek green I have that brew up creamy and slightly sweet. It smells of cinnamon, cloves, apple, sweet fruit and spice. It has a medium bodied creamy mouthfeel and has a sweet taste provided by the dried apple, orange and raisins mixed with natural sweetness of tea. There is a hint of smoke and bitterness all overlain by sweet spice, with cinnamon and cloves on top and ginger underneath. The flavouring tastes a little bit like mincemeat pie but is not quite as sweet and it resteeps quite well.

This tea smells like apple juice. Dry, the tea has quite a bit of dry apple and gun powder green tea. The first steep tastes of fresh apple juice with the tea base not extremely present except to provide a feeling of alertness and provide some sweetness. The second steep is the best, the tea base becomes creamy, providing a sweet, vegetal flavour, almost like fresh greenbeans, overlayed with apple. A very refreshing, unpretentious tea, that delivers what it promises.

Overall, this was a nice subtly flavoured, heavier green, with no smokiness, that takes well to resteeping.

Dry leaves- sage green to olive green mediumly tightly rolled small
pieces of lemon rind, scent of lemon and almost a lemon thyme coming off dry leaves.

1st steep- 45 seconds- tea straw like colour, underlying tea has flavour of clover and a hint of alfalfa, sweet with a bit of bitterness. It leaves a tingling on my tongue. The flavour is subtle, leaving a bit of astrigency over a smooth base. I’m pretty sure this is due to the lemon because I have found Bastek’s other gunpowder teas pretty creamy through at least the first two infusions. Lemon flavour tastes of lemon juice it is not heavy, sweetened or artificial.

2nd steep- 50 seconds- tea saffron colour, more alfalfa, less fresh clover, a little bit of bitterness. Same soft lemon and astrigency. Flavouring is subtle, as though one put just a small drop of lemon in the tea, not a slice.

3rd steep- 55 seconds- base oddly sweeter, less vegetal and more fruity, less robust mouth feel. Lemon flavour still present and a touch of bitterness from the rinds. astrigency has not changed.

4th steep- 90seconds- base is loosing sweetness but still delivering a tingling clean fresh feel in the mouth, faint hint of bitter green vegetables, lemon only slightly present. Tea still has a good deal of body but I will stop here.

Spent leaves fairly large and mostly entire when unwound. Easy to drink. Simple.